Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Working At White House Has Become Worst Job Ever

Working for Donald Trump has to be very rough onanyone's mental health.

It used to be that if you got a job in the White House, that was prestigious. If you got such a job, your elderly relatives whisper to each other about how sharp you are.

Having worked at the White House looks awesome on a resume, at least it used to. At parties, flattering friends probably pepper you for insights on what the president is really like.

Of course, a lot of what we hear is from anonymous sources, and not everything we read about or see on TV is necessarily true. But the missives coming from the bowels of the White House sound like hell. Except less friendly than hell.

Even so, there's all these details that leak out.

Like how staffers in the White House turned up the TVs as loud as they could go as Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer and other top officials screamed at each other. The staffers with the TVs are kind of like terrified children whose parents are in a violent relationship.

Trump's favorite thing to do, apparently is throw others under the bus. He does something stupid, the staff tries to spin the White House out of the mess Trump creates, then Trump goes ahead and contradicts everything the spinners say.

"....some aides have 'moved to angry,' frustrated with a president who demands absolute loyalty but in recent days has publicly tarnished the credibility of his team by sending them out with one message - only to personally undercut it later with a contradicting tweet or public comment."

Nothing like building morale by basically yelling to the world that your staffers are stupid.

Speaking of massaged egos, it turns out that the briefings Trump gets are Playskol versions, and even then, the only way to hold the president's attention when he is reading the briefs is to mention his name as often as possible.

"Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span. He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos. National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump's name in as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he's mentioned.' according to one source, who relayed conversatios he had with NSC officials."

Of course, the media, and much of the general public - never mind late night comedy show hosts - have not exactly been massaging Trump's ego the way he likes.

That has led Trump to be dark and brooding and scary and even weirder than he usually is. Which makes life for his aides even more dire,

"And his own mood, according to advisors who spoke on condition of anonymity, has become sour and dark, and has turned againts most of his aides, even his sonin-law, Jared Kushner - describing them as "incompetent," according to his advisors."

The incompetent one is, of course, the president. Aides have to babysit Trump during official meetings. The New York Times says General McMaster "has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations when he believes the president is straying off topic or onto boggy diplomatic ground."

Trump also thinks McMaster talks too much and "is a pain."

In any event, working in the Trump White House has seriously got to be a danger to one's mental health.

"For many White House staffers, impromptu support groups of friends, confidants, and acquaintances have materialized, calling and texting to check in, inquiring about their mental state and urging them to take care of themselves."

We don't know what will happen to the Trump administration or how long it will last, but I hope there's an army of PTSD counselors ready for any and all staffers that eventually leave the Trump White House.